Liverpool co-owner reveals 'unworkable' relationship with Hicks

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, March 27, 2008

George Gillett Jr. says his partnership with Tom Hicks, his co-owner at Liverpool, has become "untenable" and that his family received death threats from fans.

Gillett said the threats came after Hicks blocked a takeover bid for the Premier League club by a Dubai consortium, a move which has damaged the pair's relationship.

Gillett, who also owns the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, is now mulling a move for overall control of the record 18-time English champions after Hicks also hesitated over an offer to buy out his partner.

Hicks has consistently ruled out selling his share in the club.

The pair have faced demonstrations by fans at Anfield after a rift with manager Rafa Benitez last year, but Gillett has seemingly repaired his relationship with the popular Spaniard _ leaving fans unhappy at Hicks' intransigence over the Dubai bid and making Gillett unwilling to sell to him.

"This partnership has been unworkable for some time," Gillett said in an interview with Canada's Prime Time Radio. "We gave our partner a long period of time to try to make arrangements to buy us out. We didn't put pressure on him but he ultimately did not get to the finishing line.

"Because of the things he said, the fans' reaction has been so negative to him that if we sold to him it has been made untenable for us. He threatened to block me selling to Dubai _ that was certainly one of the things that made the fans upset."

Gillett said he receives about 2,000 e-mails a week, with 95 percent of them reacting to comments by Hicks.

"The thing that angers them the most is the prospect that I might sell even one share of stock to my partner," Gillett said. "They do not want him to have controlling interest in this club.

"They don't even want him to have any ownership in the club based on what they're saying and sending to me."

Gillett said he was happy to deal with criticism over his handling of the club but that threats to his family were another matter, making him reconsider his dealings with Hicks.

"Frankly I don't think it's fair for me to put my family in that kind of danger, so instead of thinking about selling, I don't know, maybe we'll think about buying," Gillett said.

The duo only bought Liverpool for 218.9 million pounds (then US$431 million) in March 2007, but their relationship rapidly unraveled following the sounding out of Juergen Klinsmann as a potential replacement for Benitez and Hicks' rebuffing of Dubai International Capital.

"We have tried to be cooperative," Gillett said. "But when your (Hick's) public persona is more important than the facts, that makes it very difficult to have a rational relationship."

Gillett said that Liverpool fans deserve better and that the best outcome had appeared to be a buyout by DIC, who offered 500 million pounds (US$993 million; euro650 million) this month.

"They have the money, and with oil prices going up every day that's not an issue, and they certainly have the history and their fans," he said. "They would have been very responsible owners, so I guess not making that possible, or making that difficult, again didn't endear people to the fans."